Assets can include facility infrastructure, equipment both large and small, fleet, and inventory, while their lifecycle encompasses procurement, setup, operation and maintenance, repairs, upgrades, and eventually, decommissioning.
Keeping track of assets can be difficult. But asset tracking is a vital part of manufacturing operations. Effective tracking of assets can streamline and improve operational efficiency, reduce costs to the business, and enhance a business’ security.
Understanding asset tracking in manufacturing
Asset tracking is the process of monitoring the use, location, and condition of a business’s physical assets throughout their entire lifecycle. Manufacturing assets come in all shapes and sizes, and the industrial equipment used in the production of products is fundamental to any manufacturing company’s operations. Large equipment used in the day-to-day manufacturing of a company’s products must be carefully tracked, managed, and maintained, as do all the spare parts and consumables required to maintain it.
Vehicles owned by the company also classify as assets that must be tracked. They can transport products or be used by maintenance staff for any number of tasks. The facility itself and all the safety equipment within it also count as they ensure smooth business operations.
In order for any manufacturing business to function, its assets must function as well. If equipment is in good working order, employees can operate in a safe environment and operations can reliably continue without interruption.
Benefits of asset tracking for manufacturers
Assets are the most costly investments a manufacturing company has. To protect that investment, the company must have a systematic method for ensuring that those assets are being used as intended to earn a return.
Asset tracking can benefit manufacturers in two important ways: operationally and financially.
Operational improvements
When assets are tracked properly by documenting and updating important asset details the company is able to maintain and use them properly as well. Asset information such as maintenance and repair histories, manuals, manufacturer information, critical spares, and more – especially if those details are stored in a centrally accessible location like a cloud-based asset management system – are critical for maintenance professionals and machine operators in their day-to-day work.
If done well, equipment remains in proper working order for longer, reducing downtime and other performance issues. When incidents do occur that interrupt productivity, proper asset tracking ensures that repairs are performed quickly by making the necessary parts and staff to fix them easy to find and coordinate.
Financial advantages
Systematic and organized asset tracking can also result in cost savings. When a piece of equipment breaks, production disruptions occur. If the part needed to repair that piece of equipment is not available, extended periods of downtime can lead to accumulating financial losses. Proper asset tracking can ensure equipment is maintained proactively and that the proper parts are on hand in inventory to repair it.
Similarly, when equipment is properly maintained, it lasts longer. This is true of manufacturing equipment as well as things like fire suppression systems that protect a facility. The longer a piece of equipment lasts, the less frequently you need to incur the expense of replacing it. .
Asset utilization is a ratio that compares how hard a company’s equipment and systems are working compared to what they could be producing optimally. It’s a metric that measures how well a company utilizes its assets to generate revenue. When every asset is properly tracked and maintained, they have more time to generate revenue for the company.
Asset tracking technologies in manufacturing
Gone are the days when assets had to be tracked and inventoried by manual sign-outs and paper inventory counts. Technology has made the process asset tracking profoundly easier and can automate many tracking tasks.
Common asset tracking methods
Core to the process of asset tracking is asset identification. There are many ways to simplify the process of identifying an asset and accessing all its relevant details that are as easy as scanning a code or taking a picture. These are some of the common technologies that make assets easier to track and inventory.
- Barcodes: Printing a unique barcode for each asset that can be read with a scanner or mobile device makes it easy to users to access any information in your asset database.
- RFID Tags: RFID tags have made it possible to know if a piece of equipment is being used and where it is. This makes resource allocation much easier as a facilities manager can decide which team member is closest to an asset that needs attention. It also helps immensely with reducing asset loss due to theft.
- BLE and UWB Solutions: Along with RFID, BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) beacons and UWB (Ultra-Wide Band) are also useful for tracking the location of assets while indoors.
Asset tracking platforms and supplemental devices
The technologies mentioned above are tools for accessing asset data. However, to be useful, there needs to be an asset database they can pull from. Here are some of the most common asset tracking software platforms and databases that can be accessed through the tracking methods above.
- CMMS software: A Computerized Maintenance Management System or CMMS system is a one-stop shop for industrial facilities maintenance and serves as a comprehensive asset tracking solution. Not only can these systems store information about equipment, they can also create schedules for maintenance, allocate staff, manage workflows, keep track of inventory pricing and budgeting, and much more.
- EAM systems: Enterprise Asset Management systems or EAMs provide a wide array of capabilities that encompass the entire asset lifecycle. Often packaged as a module in a larger ERP, organizations typically use them as a supplement to other software solutions.
- ERP systems: Enterprise resource planning systems, or ERP, are software solutions that take information from disparate systems and bring them together so that data can be analyzed in the aggregate. For example, equipment data and asset inventories can be shared across financial systems for forecasting, cost accounting, and depreciation.
- IoT sensors: IoT (Internet of Things) sensors are devices that can be attached to an asset to collect and send asset tracking data to a central repository or database like those listed above. The sensor can detect asset characteristics and help maintenance teams predict and prevent asset malfunctions or failures.
Selection and implementation considerations
Asset tracking software will only benefit your organizationorganizaiton if it is applied consistently and adopted thoroughly across your team. Here are some considerations to plan around in order to ensure you get the most out of your software investment.
The right tracking and asset identification method
For mobile assets, a tracking method using RFID would make more sense than a barcode. RFID can not only identify the asset, but also show its real-time location while it is being used. On the other hand, if most of the assets you will be tracking are not mobile, a barcode system will be easier to implement.
Integration requirements
If you are choosing between a BLE and UWB system, BLE uses Bluetooth, the infrastructure which may already exist within your facility if your IT department uses it. Whereas UWB requires its own dedicated infrastructure in order to implement.
Staff training needs
There is always a learning curve when you implement new technology, or any new process for that matter. While the net effect is that the lives of your staff will be much easier, maintenance team training should be built into the implementation plan for any asset tracking software.
ROI considerations
It is important to consider – and measure – the return you are hoping to gain by implementing a new asset management system. The goals of such a program will influence many aspects of how the system is chosen and rolled out. Do you want your system to shorten repair time? Reduce the cost of spare parts and reactive expedited shipping? Provide better visibility and measurement of asset usage to leadership?
Aligning on what you hope to get out of an asset tracking system at your manufacturing plant will help ensure that those goals are achieved through the selection and implementation processes.
Best practices for manufacturing asset tracking
Asset tracking is an idea that has been around for a while so there have been many lessons learned. Here are a few tried and tested tips for making the most of your asset tracking journey.
Use real time monitoring strategies
Real time data monitoring means you can learn about equipment condition as it develops, or potential failures before they occur. Incorporating this kind of condition-monitoring into your asset tracking program will help super-charge your returns. This can place you squarely on the path toward predictive maintenance and also gives you real-time visibility so all items are accounted for.
Connect to maintenance planning
Any asset tracking program should be leveraged in the planning of maintenance activities. The collection of and centralized access to asset data unlocks incredible efficiencies for maintenance teams, enabling more precise maintenance scheduling, work order management, and team communication.
Optimize inventory management
More organized documentation of asset information is useful for many reasons but one of the top is inventory management. When preferred spare parts are documented and linked to the applicable asset, it becomes easier and faster for maintenance and operations teams to locate, reorder, and stock the parts they need.
Deciding how inventory will be managed also gets easter by analyzing previous data to forecast future needs. Knowing how much inventory to have on hand can be driven by many things including supply chain logistics and equipment warranties, all documented within the asset record.
Prioritize data utilization
Asset tracking programs provide the most benefit when organizations harness the power of the troves of asset data they collect. From asset utilization to lifecycle to any number of maintenance metrics, there are infinite insights to be gained by analyzing the asset data you have.
Make sure to build out any reports and dashboards you have access to in your asset tracking system. It holds the key to many different ways you can optimize your asset management program.
Take control of your assets
Assets are what make your business run. Asset tracking and management ensures you get the most out of your equipment and produce the quality goods that your company is known for. With the right tracking technology and methods, you can gain visibility into asset use, ensure that you get the most out of that investment, and drive success for years to come.
